Thread: Give Me Criticisms

Hey guys, so I am starting a business related to the landscaping industry. I am 90% finished with everything (licenses, website, printed flyers for relaters, etc).

I could start tomorrow if I had to but I have decided to start as slow as possible (I need to practice on my yard and begin to market). Please rate and give me some constructive criticism on my website. I have put a good many hours into it and feel like it's 98% complete. I also know I am biased so I'm sure I have over looked a few minor mistakes/negatives.

- Your opening paragraph seems to be very popular among the painted grass industry. To avoid duplicate content issues, write your own.

- Read the previous reviews on here as they'll apply to your site. Pay extra attention to on-site SEO advice (Title tags, Meta Descrips, etc), as well as read the seomoz and Google SEO guides we often post. They'll be of help to you as that needs attention.

- If you aren't using Google Analytics, or some other, you'll want to do so. Gotta know who your visitors are, where they're arriving from, where they're located, and what they're spending time on at your site. Just noticed you explain elsewhere in the site. I'd still expand from just bullets, but also link that content to the deeper explanation pages (not just relying on the menu options).

- Try expanding the content beyond bullet points. You're trying to explain and sell a unique service and PowerPoint presentation style bullets don't work. Bullet points are great to set up talking points and explanations, but shouldn't be used as the sole content.

- Watch your content font consistency. I'm seeing different sizes and fonts on the services page and about us.

On a side note, while it's great you're offering logo help, we've seen this go horribly wrong in the past. Photoshop is fine for web graphics, but how are your Illustrator skills for actual logo creation? To me, a bit of a warning sign is that your flat color logo is saved as a .jpg.

- Your opening paragraph seems to be very popular among the painted grass industry. To avoid duplicate content issues, write your own. I agree, I will take the time to write my own 100% paragraph.

- Read the previous reviews on here as they'll apply to your site. Pay extra attention to on-site SEO advice (Title tags, Meta Descrips, etc), as well as read the seomoz and Google SEO guides we often post. They'll be of help to you as that needs attention.

- If you aren't using Google Analytics, or some other, you'll want to do so. Gotta know who your visitors are, where they're arriving from, where they're located, and what they're spending time on at your site. Just noticed you explain elsewhere in the site. I'd still expand from just bullets, but also link that content to the deeper explanation pages (not just relying on the menu options). I thought I would use "StatCounter"...I will have to look into the Google analytic, since I do not know much about it.

- Try expanding the content beyond bullet points. You're trying to explain and sell a unique service and PowerPoint presentation style bullets don't work. Bullet points are great to set up talking points and explanations, but shouldn't be used as the sole content. I will have to take a hard look at this.....this is my first website i've ever put together and I just assumed that I needed to get my point across ASAP...I thought a person may not have time to read any lengthy verbiage, so i tried to prevent them from leaving my site prematurely...Do you really feel that there is a huge benefit from expanding my content? I can expand but I didn't want to scare anyone away

- Watch your content font consistency. I'm seeing different sizes and fonts on the services page and about us. This was something I planed to do before I started to market.....I have been typing in Word to ensure any miss-spellings and it has cause some inconsistency issues when I work from home or my normal work computer. Thank you because I thought I could get away with it for a while but obviously not.

On a side note, while it's great you're offering logo help, we've seen this go horribly wrong in the past. Photoshop is fine for web graphics, but how are your Illustrator skills for actual logo creation? To me, a bit of a warning sign is that your flat color logo is saved as a .jpg.

I will have to take a hard look at this.....this is my first website i've ever put together and I just assumed that I needed to get my point across ASAP...I thought a person may not have time to read any lengthy verbiage, so i tried to prevent them from leaving my site prematurely...Do you really feel that there is a huge benefit from expanding my content? I can expand but I didn't want to scare anyone away

You do want to get your point across ASAP. My suggestion would be to link to deeper explanations/content for those who want it, and do so by linking from within the content (not just navigation menus). Google loves deeper dives. In all honesty, by search engine standards, you're not in a competitive space, so, from a ranking standpoint, the additional content would be more of a help to humans rather than search bots. The search volume for your keywords is nonexistent, so you'll be able to easily dominate. On the downside, ranking #1 for words that have no search volume is a tough spot to be in. On the plus side, if the industry grows, you're the local/regional authority site.

Quote:

I have been typing in Word to ensure any miss-spellings and it has cause some inconsistency issues when I work from home or my normal work computer. Thank you because I thought I could get away with it for a while but obviously not.

To clarify, I'm not talking about typos. I'm talking about the font displaying your content. The Services page content uses 12pt Arial. The About Us page content uses 14pt Calibri. This should just be an easy fix from within the Jimdo site builder.

- Another thing I noticed, after looking at the search volume, is that you don't have keyword pairings that I think people will be using to find you. "Grass painting", "Grass painting in Lexington", "Mulch painting", etc. Think how humans will be searching for you and then shape your content from there.

Looks really good. Did not see any major issues that would turn me away from your site which is what you do not want your potential clients to do.

I agree with most of the above comments as they were very through.

I would push marketing to Real Estate companies to get quick business as they are the ones that want to see the quick results and are not in the job for the long haul and have plenty of houses they would need to have treated for sale.

Looks really good. Did not see any major issues that would turn me away from your site which is what you do not want your potential clients to do.

Perfect

I agree with most of the above comments as they were very through.

Yes, they were and have given me a start on my editing before I start to market. First with the consistency of my fonts and sizes

I would push marketing to Real Estate companies to get quick business as they are the ones that want to see the quick results and are not in the job for the long haul and have plenty of houses they would need to have treated for sale.

Yes, That will be my first and only potential client for a little while. I actually want to start SLOW & SMALL. I can only work weekends or after work during the week. Starting slow will help me answer some questions I have and help ensure I can maintain the business by myself for the time being.

Does anyone have any favorite fonts they like to use? I have a plethora of fonts and cant decide which ones to chose from.

Unfortunately, you don't get to use just any font that you like on your webpages. There is a standardized list and it's pretty small, of what browsers support. If you randomly choose fonts, they will have to be on the users system or you'll have to do some sleight of hand with coding to embed them (see Google Fonts or any of the large font houses for more detail) and will pay a load time penalty, so use it sparingly, where it really counts. If you call a font and build all your spacing for you to see then view it on a machine without that font, you'll see some nasty business that comes from not planning your font trees or embedding properly.

I agree with Dale on pursuing RE agents (and other contractors) with that service,including a cut in for them, if necessary. Those kinds of contacts will be more about your phone skills and dropping a card face to face with your website in a support role than volumes of online traffic delivering business (especially when it was pointed out that the search terms monthly are next to nonexistent). Be active, you're in a niche service, don't wait for web to feed you.

Additionally, you have a visual business. A visual on your front page is mandatory. Use a large before/after or even some video to make a much larger impact!